Category: Truck Accessories

Lola, left, helps Made For The Outdoors Host Lindsey Hayes sew the edge of an ACCESS® Roll-Up Cover while filming an episode about how our tonneau covers are manufactured.

Made For The Outdoors visited our factory last year to document the process of making ACCESS® Roll-Up Covers. Host Lindsey Hayes went behind the scenes and even tried out some of the steps herself. The episode shows her sewing a vinyl tonneau cover and preparing the hardware required to install the cover. Hayes also installed a tonneau cover on a pickup.

This video shares the company culture behind the truck bed covers. Hayes interviewed several employees and spent time exploring the facility on our company tricycles (She was particularly enamored with the trikes). Watch to the very end to see her riding with a big crew of Agri-Cover people.

Watch the episode here:

Made For The Outdoors airs on Fox Sports North, Fox Sports Wisconsin and the Sportsman Channel. Check local listings for air times.

A good tonneau cover is an important investment for a truck owner. We want you to get as much out of that investment as possible, which is why we offer these tips to protect your cover and extend your truck bed cover’s life.

Keep your tonneau cover closed when not in use. Roll-up covers are designed to be used in the closed position most of the time but can be rolled open to transport large cargo. Avoid storing your tonneau in the rolled-open position for long periods of time to decrease the possibility of the cover’s interior components being damaged by the sun.

Keep your tonneau tight. Tension matters. A tight tonneau cover will last, but a loose cover will wear out prematurely. Most tonneau covers have tension adjusters for fine-tuning; the vinyl should sound drum-like when tapped on. Also, always finish securing the truck bed cover by sealing the sides with the hook-and-loop system.

First, thank you for considering us. Second, let’s make sure we get the tonneau cover that will fit your truck.

Misjudging your bed length is surprisingly easy. I say this because we get a number of tonneau covers returned each year when customers order the wrong size. Many people make the easy mistake of ordering a standard-bed cover for a short-bed truck, or vice versa.

Also, different manufacturers measure their truck beds in different ways, which can lead to confusion. We recommend you get a tape measure to determine your bed size and make certain you only have to order once. Here’s a guide to getting the right length:

These are the new ACI Off-Road LED Lights from Agri-Cover, Inc. If you need more light for nighttime work or travel off the beaten path, these lights are the solution.

All our LED lights are super-bright, are waterproof and feature aluminum housings and stainless-steel mounting brackets. They can be mounted on all sorts of vehicles, including ATVs, trucks, Jeeps, skid-steers and tractors.

LEDs are great for putting more light around a work or off-road vehicle for several reasons. They are more efficient than other lights, using a fraction of the power needed by incandescent lights. LEDs are also far more shock-resistant because they don’t use the fragile materials used in other lighting systems. Also, they last for a very long time, so you don’t have to worry about a bulb fizzling out when you’re a long way from home.

Before I start going into detail about these lights, there are a few terms you’ll need to know:

Lumen: This gives you an objective number for just how much light something produces so you can compare it to other products. For comparison, a 60-watt incandescent bulb puts out roughly 800 lumens of light, while your average basic car headlight puts out about 1,200 lumens.

Heatsink: LEDs do not like heat. That’s why any high-powered LED system will have metal fins and ridges on the back to pull the waste heat out of the LEDs and release it to the air.

Spot and Flood beams: These terms describe the shape of the beam formed by a light. A spot beam will focus the light tightly into a narrow shape for lighting things farther away, while a flood beam spreads the light out into a wide shape to light an area closer to you.

Now, let’s look at these lights.

18-watt LED Lights

These lights have six 3-watt LEDs in a single row. They produce 1,200 lumens per light. You can get them with a 90-degree flood beam or a 25-degree spot beam.

The narrow shape makes it easy to install these lights in tight spaces. See how well they fit the front of this ATV, for example:

We put a pair of the 18-watt lights on this Polaris Ace and went for a drive. Take a look and see how much of a difference there is between the stock headlights and when we turn on the LEDs:

24-watt LED Lights

These lights have eight 3-watt LEDS arranged in a circle. They produce 1,600 lumens per light. You can get them with a 60-degree flood beam or a 30-degree spot beam.

These LED lights work great for lighting the way ahead, or for doing work around your vehicle. Here are a set of them mounted in a truck’s headache rack, pointed backward, to light up the area behind the truck for working after dark.

42-watt LED Lights

These lights are slightly larger than the 24-watt lights, and you’ll notice they have an even thicker heatsink. These lights have 14 3-watt LEDs in a circle and produce 2,800 lumens per light. They come with either a 60-degree flood beam or an 8-degree spot beam.

These lights are considerably more powerful than your average vehicle’s headlights, and a set of them would easily light the way for a trail ride. Check out how well they fit on this Jeep’s bumper.

90-watt LED Lights

These lights feature nine 10-watt LEDs in a 3×3 grid, and they produce 8,100 lumens per light.

Let’s put that number in perspective: If you put two of these lights on your vehicle, they’ll draw as much power as three 60-watt bulbs, but they’ll put out more light than if you had twenty 60-watt bulbs.

You can order these lights with a 90-degree flood beam or a 10-degree spot beam. You’ll also notice they have huge heatsinks, and the mounting brackets have built-in rubber shock absorbers to handle rough travel.

These lights perform well when you need to get work done at night. They come in really handy on skid-steers and on agricultural equipment.

Here are the 90-watt lights on a skid-steer, for example.

And here is the view from the cab of an agricultural sprayer that has the 90-watt lights pointed at the ground and the boom.

For more information, check out our website. We have technical specifications, wiring information and more.

Ram Trucks has offered its RamBox Cargo Management System with its trucks since the 2009 model year. This package turns the area over the wheelwells into locking storage for smaller items. The system also adds a cargo rail system and bed divider to the main portion of the bed.

Many truck buyers will want to add a tonneau cover to protect larger pieces of cargo in the main bed, and there’s no reason they can’t have it.

Father’s Day is coming up. If you’re stretching for ideas on what to get him, ask yourself: Does my dad own a pickup? If the answer is yes, then any of these gift ideas could work for you.

EZ-RETRIEVER® II Cargo Reaching Tool. MSRP: $19.95

#1. EZ-RETRIEVER® II Cargo Reaching Tool

One reality of truck ownership is that cargo loves to work its way up to the front of the bed while you’re driving. This makes it unreachable from the tailgate and a pain to get by reaching over the bedrail.

As a father myself, I’d love it if my daughter bought me one of these. Then again, I’d be very confused, because she’s 22 months old and has no concept of money.

ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light. MSRP: $39.95

#2. ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light

Does your dad ever gripe about how he needs more light somewhere, be it in his truck, his toolbox or his closet?

Give him an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light. This battery-powered light uses a strong 3M adhesive to stick most anywhere you need it, and the automatic shut-off means your dad won’t kill the batteries if he forgets to turn it off.

Here’s a video that shows how to install this light, and many ways it can be used:

Also, if your dad is into doing his own electrical projects, you can consider the ACCESS™ LED Lights, which come in four different lengths and can be hooked into any 12-volt power source.

ACCESS® Cargo Management Kit. MSRP starts at $44.90

#3. ACCESS® Cargo Management Kits

The kit uses the Truck Bed Pockets to create useful storage for smaller items behind the wheelwells of the truck bed. The pockets also have notches that hold the EZ-RETRIEVER® II Cargo Reaching Tool to create a fence at the back of the truck bed to keep larger items organized.

And if you really want to surprise him, you could pitch in and help with installing everything. Here’s a video that details all the steps in installing an ACCESS® Limited Roll-Up Cover and all the accessories:

We recently heard from a pickup driver who wanted a tonneau cover from us but was afraid to get one because the customer’s vehicle is a leased truck. The customer feared adding any sort of accessories to the truck would violate the lease agreement.

I contacted two local experts on leasing pickups and other vehicles, and they both said people who lease trucks would be fine adding a tonneau cover like our ACCESS® Original Roll-Up Cover.

There are several reasons a driver might want to lease a pickup instead of buying one, according to James Morris, finance and lease manager at R.M. Stoudt, and Steve Jaskoviak, finance manager at Don Wilhelm, Inc., which are both dealerships here in Jamestown, North Dakota.

Morris said people and companies who lease pickups instead of purchasing them can get more truck for the money. This is because the monthly payment for leasing a particular vehicle is usually much less than the monthly loan payment for buying the same make and model.

Jaskoviak said that when you lease a truck, you also can trade it in every two or three years and then lease a brand-new pickup with new, upgraded technology. It also means that if a pickup develops problems that make it less desirable as a long-term work truck or personal truck, a lessee can walk away from it at the end of the lease contract’s term.

When choosing accessories for a truck, it’s important to choose ones that can be completely uninstalled and don’t require permanently altering the vehicle.

“Alterations in suspension, engine will affect a leased vehicle,” Jaskoviak said. “Since the leasing company is the actual owner they do not let a lessee do dramatic alterations to the core of the vehicle.”

With the exception of some specialized applications, ACCESS® Roll-Up Covers do not require any permanent modification of a truck. They attach to a truck’s bed rails using TITE BITE™ clamps that attach to the bed without drilling and maintain a superior grip between the truck bed cover and the bed.

“I lease my truck now and have a tonneau,” Morris said. “I will probably put it on my next truck. It is a none-issue as I have leased a lot of trucks with tonneau covers.”

Make sure that you take all the correct steps if you’re installing a tonneau cover yourself. Take your time; a rushed install could lead to mistakes that damage the truck, your cover, or you (or all of the above). Here is a video that shows all the steps to installing an ACCESS® Brand Roll-Up Cover:

Here’s a review of our tonneau covers from one customer who leased his truck, Ken P. in British Columbia, Canada:

“Just wanted to write a review about the quality and how well suited your tonneau cover it is for people needing quick access to the box. I have just ordered my third cover as I lease my trucks for 3 years. One Long box Ford, one short box Chevy and now a tiny box Toyota. At first I was skeptical that a Roll-up cover would stand up to our harsh Northern BC winter climate but I wanted something that I could easily get out of the way when throwing the sled or garbage cans in the back. The Access cover is fast, easy and always tight. After 3 years in our harsh weather they still look great. I have been very happy with the Access tonneau cover.“

But even if an accessory requires some sort of modification to the vehicle, or if you still feel anxious about an accessory for a lease truck, you always have the option of speaking with the leasing company and asking if a particular accessory would cause any problems for you down the line.

It will be the easiest if you do this while negotiating the terms of the lease. If you have the company’s blessing in writing, then you know for certain that an accessory won’t hurt you when the time comes to turn the lease pickup back in.

Also, if you choose to buy the leased truck after the term ends, you don’t have to worry about your accessories or modifications.

Lastly, you might want to look at accessories that could protect the truck from costly damage in the long term. One suggestion is our ACCESS™ Truck Bed Mat.

If you’re leasing your truck to carry materials that could scratch or dent the bed — like gravel or tools with sharp edges — you risk damaging your work truck’s bed and paying for the damage when you turn the truck in.

The ACCESS™ Truck Bed Mat is a thick carpet is made from 100% recycled soda and water bottles. It installs easily in a few minutes and adds durability to any bed, cushioning the force of dropped cargo and keeping materials from shifting around. If it gets dirty, just spray it off with a power washer.

If you do install this carpet on a lease truck, make certain you use the adhesive snaps included with the kit and not the drill-in snaps, which could affect your lease.

When it comes time to turn in the leased truck, use the flat end of a flathead screwdriver placed just under the edge of the snap and a small wood shim to pry against. The snap will pop off either taking the adhesive with it or leaving the adhesive on the truck. In the latter case, just use your thumb to roll it off.

Darkness is lying in wait for you in so many places. Here are 10 spots where you can install an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light and send darkness packing.

1. A truck bed.

Adding a tonneau cover solves a lot of problems, but it can block light when you need to find something in the bed. This ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light lets you keep the bed covered but see what you need to see.

This is the original purpose of this battery light: to put light in a truck bed without having to wire it into a power supply. If you hate searching in the dark for something in the back of your truck, add one of these lights and your problem is solved.

2. Boats.

Fishing in the dark is overrated. A well-placed ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light means you don’t have to try and locate a dropped lure or hook just by feeling around for it (OUCH!).

There are many hidden spots on boats where your keys, a lure or something else important can fall and be hard to find in the darkness. The light’s 3M adhesive let’s you stick it to most any surface and the whole assembly is waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about it getting splashed.

3. Enclosed trailers.

The storage and work spaces in this toy-hauler trailer are much more useful thanks to an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light overhead.

Trailers meant to carry cargo often have plenty of dark spaces, and wiring them for lighting can be quite a bit of work. With a battery light, you don’t have to worry about where you can run cables. You just peel the backing off the adhesive and stick the light where you need it.

4. Sheds.

If you can’t find anything because it’s too dark, that storage shed isn’t really helping you. Add an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light so you don’t have find your gear by touch.

Storage sheds are great at keeping your property dry, but they often lack decent lighting — let alone electricity. Stick one of these lights on the wall or ceiling so you can see what you need to find.

Can you tell by touch alone the difference between a ½” wrench and a 13mm? If not, you need to consider lighting up your toolbox so you can find the right tool every time.

6. Cupboards and cabinets.

The average home has plenty of dark cabinets. If you need more light, just add an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light and you’re set.

You’ve probably got half a dozen of these in your home. How often do you wish you could see inside them better? These lights stick to the sides and tops of cabinets, so you can aim the LEDs wherever you want the light to shine.

7. Gun safes.

Gun safes rarely have enough usable light. Add an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light so you can see inside your safe.

Manufacturers usually focus on strength and security when building gun safes, while visibility is often not a priority. Quality firearms often have finishes that can be scratched by clumsy handling when going into or coming out of a safe — which can give rust an avenue to start eating at the metal. Put a light in your safe so you don’t wind up smacking your guns together while trying to find the one you want.

8. ATVs

This ATV has an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light mounted to light up the area behind it.

Stick a light along the rear of your four-wheeler to give yourself a portable light for any time you have to work in the field. The mounted light lets you work with both hands instead of having to hold a flashlight with one.

9. Fish houses and hunting cabins.

Adding an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light to a fishhouse can keep you from fishing in the dark and wondering where you dropped that lure.

Hunters and anglers often build shelters out where the only power is what you bring to camp. An ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light gives many hours of usable light off a single set of batteries, and the long-lasting LEDs mean you never have to worry about burned-out bulbs.

10. Your home bar.

Sticking an ACCESS™ AA Battery LED Light to the top of this liquor cabinet made it easy to find the right spirit. It also impresses the guests.

Many homeowners keep their liquor and wine hidden in cabinets, drawers or closets to keep it away from curious children. This can make it hard to find the right bottle when you want a drink. The solution: Stick a battery light to the top of your cabinet, pointing down at the bottles, and position the battery box in a spot where you can easily find its switch by touch. The next time you have a party, you’ll be able to find the spirit of your choice much more quickly.

If you want to know the differences between receiver, gooseneck and fifth-wheel hitches, this series of videos by Ram Trucks is a handy guide. It shows how to hook up a trailer using each sort of hitch and shares some facts about the capabilities of each hitch.

Last year, Ram Trucks made a big splash during the Super Bowl with its commercial, “Farmer,” embedded above. (You can see a longer version with more of Paul Harvey’s speech here). It exploded across social media and got the company a great deal of attention, especially in the agriculture industry.

Chevrolet already released its Super Bowl commercial for the Silverado HD, called “Romance.” It takes the format of its super-serious, minimalist “Strong” campaign and has a bit of fun on the topic of where beef really comes from.

Chevrolet is running this spot as well as another unrevealed 1-minute spot during the big game.

Ford has something hybrid-centered for the Super Bowl. There have been occasional rumors of a hybrid pickup from them, but nothing ever seems to materialize. We’ll see. Ford’s spot is expected to air just before kickoff.

Also, this Toyota commercial popped up just this past week. Could it be hinting at something to come?

We’ll update this post with any more Super Bowl commercials that appear. Let us know what you think of these ads in the comments section.

Monday morning update:

Well, the big game is passed. I missed a good bit of it because my TV signal went to pot sometime in the second quarter and didn’t recover until there were a few minutes left in the fourth. That’s just life for you.

First up is Chevrolet’s second big game commercial. It’s a bit of a slow burn that seems like a soft, romantic piece. Then, in the last few seconds it reveals exactly what is happening. Anyone who’s ever had a loved one fight cancer can relate to this:

Ram Trucks didn’t have anything to top its big hit from last year, but it did upload this little video yesterday.